A distressed Evan Green (Dan Stevens) is released from the Zero Day Commission prison. As the press surrounds them, his lawyer says that George Mullen (Robert De Niro)'s overreach and treatment of Green has eclipsed the terrorism it was designed to stop.
George wakes Sheila (Joan Allen) and tells her that when she's in front of the oversight committee, she can't defend him or the commission. He admits that he might have gone too far with his actions.
Is George really done? Who actually committed the Zero Day cyber attacks? Here’s what happens in Zero Day episode 5.
Dreyer aims to replace George
Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) tells President Eveyln Mitchell (Angela Bassett) she made a mistake hiring Mullen, but it's not too late to correct it. If Sheila criticizes George, and she must if she wants to get onto the Supreme Court, then there's no way back for George. Dreyer says that, in the right hands, the commission is the best way to find those responsible. Dreyer wants to take over from George. He says the people want answers and he's the only one who can provide them.
At the oversight committee, Sheila defends George's state of mind and says the treatment of Evan Green is still just rumors at this point. She says that the members of the oversight committee are the ones who gave George his power. The public is impressed by Sheila's defense.
The commission has no leads
Stories of Evan Green being tortured spread across the media. Carl Otineo (McKinley Belcher III) tells Valerie Whitesell (Connie Britton) that everyone he mentioned has been released with no connection to Zero Day. He says that at least the torture acted as a deterrent because there hasn’t been another cyber attack.
The Zero Day commission’s experts reveal that the photos Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons) provided of Evan and Hayes were sophisticated deepfakes.
Roger’s funeral
The autopsy reveals that Roger had heroin in his system when he drowned. George vows to go to Roger's funeral, even though there's a chance he'll be attacked by Proteus again.
At the funeral, George remembers fighting his deceased son Nick over his drug use.
Back at their house, Alexandra (Lizzy Caplan) says that Nick died of suicide. But George believes he died of an overdose. George apologizes to Alexandra for disappointing her. Alexandra says George should have stayed at home and finished his memoir rather than join the commission.
George finds a clue
Now 24 days after Zero Day, they still aren't close to finding the people responsible. George plans to resign from the commission. He looks back through his notes and finds a letter written by Roger to him. Inside is the information that Roger overheard on the long-range radio from Robert Lyndon (Clark Gregg).
George takes the notes to Valerie, Carl, and the rest of the commission and they set their sights on Lyndon. They use a long-range radio to listen in to the conversations. George believes that Lyndon is part of Zero Day, but not the biggest. They bring in code-breakers and spend all night listening in to the conversations. They’re soon able to crack it, and find proof the hackers knew of the Homestead bank attack days prior and the location of the servers.
Mitchell gives George more time
George shows Mitchell their discoveries in the Oval Office. But Lyndon has disappeared, and they don’t yet know the identities of the other conspirators. Mitchell is impressed but they need more evidence. Especially since she’s all but confirmed that George will resign at the end of the day, with Dreyer replacing him. She tells George he has 24 hours to nail everyone down.
After learning George hasn’t quit yet, Alexandra calls Valerie and aggressively tells her that George either needs to quit now or tell the committee what they’ve discovered.
Since all the voices on the channel are disguised, George poses as Lyndon and sets-up a rendezvous with another conspirator. George convinces a conspirator to meet at Roger’s apartment. The commission watches as Blake Felton (Ryan Spahn) goes inside. Face recognition software discovers that Blake used to work for Monica Kidder (Gaby Hoffman). They arrest Felton and go to search Kidder’s mansion.
Kidder avoids arrest
Kidder won’t let the officers inside her huge and well-secured home. Carl says they can enter with force if needed. Kidder starts to live-stream the stand-off to millions, saying it’s proof that George is desperate and dangerous. She alleges that George actually resigned from the presidency because of his mental health issues, not the death of his son.
Kidder tells the commission she'll talk, but only to George and Valerie. Over the phone, Kidder says she wants immunity first before she reveals anything. George refuses. Then Kidder reveals that one of the apps she owns conducts DNA-searches. They recently had a submission from Valerie’s daughter Lily, which revealed that George is her father. Kidder says she’ll reveal that George and Valerie had an affair when he was the president.
Suddenly, shots are fired at the Zero Day Commission officers from the rooftop of Kidder’s house. Carl gets shot. The officers take down the shooters, then get into Kidder’s home.
Zero Day goes much deeper
George tells a press conference they found signature code directly linking Kidder to the malware attack that killed 3,400 people. They don’t know why Kidder planned and perpetrated the attack and who she worked with, though. Mitchell and the FBI director Jeremy Lasch (Bill Camp) watch the news stone-faced. The media speculate over why Kidder would conduct such an attack.
A distressed Alexandra calls Dreyer and says they need to call everything off. Dreyer says they can’t discuss this over the phone. Alexandra then pulls out a long-range radio from her desk.
George tells Valerie that this goes much deeper than Kidder. She was waiting at the house for someone to come save her. They also didn’t find the Proteus machine that has been used on George. George wants to speak to Kidder face to face.
Back at his home, George gets a call from Valerie, who says they have a problem. Margot has been found dead in her cell. It looks like it was suicide, but the officers say the security cameras have been placed on a loop, which suggests she was murdered and someone covered it up.
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